Anil Trigunayat
The recent India-Pak limited but decisive war was provoked by heinous terror attacks that killed innocent tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, carried out by terrorists backed by the Pakistani deep state. These attacks hit the nerve centre of tourism in this heavenly Kashmiri landscape, hurting the locals where it impacted their livelihood. No wonder unprecedented anger surged among Indians against Pakistan and its backers.
In this war, like the previous ones, the terrorist state of Pakistan was overtly supported by its three ironclad friends—China, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan—both diplomatically and militarily, blinded by Islamic-coloured goggles. Their complicity with the promoters of terrorism can’t go unpunished.
Both Türkiye and Azerbaijan, despite tepid diplomatic relations with India, have significantly gained from trade and tourism with India. Indians, possibly the biggest spenders on tourism, keep looking for new and beautiful locations. Indian and their national airlines are flush with inquisitive Indian travellers, including those traveling for weddings and corporate events, let alone individual tourists and transit passengers to Europe, the USA, etc. They earn hundreds of millions of dollars from Indian tourists each year, with a CAGR of over 20%.
Like with the Maldives last year, Indian patriots have started reviewing their travel plans, cancelling travel to or via Türkiye and Azerbaijan. Even fruit vendors and importers are cancelling orders in protest against actions perceived as hostile to Indian interests. This will have a long-term ripple effect on trade and tourism.
It is important for Ankara, Baku, and Beijing to pause and consider whether continuing to embrace the terror-perpetrating state of Pakistan will help their national interests and international standing, or whether they should retract and work with India—the largest democracy, a fast-growing and fourth-largest economy in the world, with the largest consumer base, including 230 million proud Indian Muslims. A simple cost-benefit analysis will be sufficient to see the reasoning—lest they choose to bear the consequences of a deteriorating relationship.
Anil Trigunayat is a former Indian Ambassador.
The article was first published in Travel Biz Monitor as Tourism and Terrorism can’t Tango on May 19 , 2025.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organization.
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Acknowledgment: This article was posted by Mohd Asif, a research intern at IMPRI.
